I wasn’t very motivated this morning and after mucking around for hours, finally left the hotel at 10am. Not a great time to leave when planned walk for the day was 31kms. Leaving Okehampton had me walking up a long hill which didn’t help my mood and then it started to rain, so I stopped and put on my wet weather gear for it to stop a few minutes later. I then had to stop again to take off wet weather gear and this pattern happened a couple of times over the next hour which made me even more pissed off at the day. I was not a happy camper however once I got off the road and onto a Bridleway and the sun came out, my mood improved with the change in location & weather.

I passed the following old hand water pump next to a road sign that shows “Tongue End” which is the name of the local area. I tried the pump but no luck with any water.

The Bridleway took me through a nice pathway down a long hill (which is not normally a good thing as I know I will be climbing a long hill up sometime soon) to the village of Sticklepath where there was a row of thatched cottages in the main street.

Due to late start, I decided against a pub stop today and stopped at a road side services for a quick lunch. With the hedges on the side of the minor roads being anything from 5 to 8 feet, normally you can’t see much and while walking I heard a roaring sound getting closer and then an RAF fighter jet roared across the road above my head.

I saw my first fox today, it ran down the road about 50 metres away and then took off through a hedge into a field. No chance of getting a photo but have put image below to give you an idea of what it may have looked like (BOOM! BOOM!).

If you are under 40 you will probably have no idea who this is, but google Basil Brush which was one of my favourite shows when I was a kid.

The weather today was such a surprise as most of the weather forecasts were predicting rain, but most of today was sunny which was a very pleasent surprise.

Some of the road signs in the UK are an issue when walking. Today as finishing my walk, I go past a sign that says Crediton 3 miles. After 10 minutes walking, I come past the next sign which says Crediton 3 miles. Not very amusing when you are knackered and just want to get the final leg finished.

I got to Crediton and then googled where my accommodation was only to find out it was 2km out of town. That will teach me to book without looking at the map to see location and hopefully I won’t make the same mistake again. At least there was a trail to the village the pub is in and The Lamb Inn has proved to be a great choice as the restaurant menu is definitely not normal pub fare and the room I have is superb. My room is right above the Lamb Inn sign so I can view the chaos of people trying to park in the little square the pub is on.

Early night tonight so I can make sure I can get an early start tomorrow.